As a distributed team before COVID-19, Artificial knows the importance of building tools that enhance productivity and efficient communication even when you aren’t physically in an office. So, when we built Artificial, a set of web-based tools for lab orchestration, we made sure that it would maximize a lab’s productivity wherever they may be. Of course, with COVID-19, there has been a dramatic shift towards remote work which is particularly difficult for most people who work in life sciences. Even with some automation in labs, life science teams can’t do their entire job at home and they still need to go into the lab to set up and run their experiments. To adhere to social distancing guidelines, many companies have implemented shifts to ensure their teams’ safety. However, shifts make it more difficult to communicate and coordinate with colleagues as well as being as efficient as possible before your shift is over.
With Artificial LabOps and Assistants, you can have:
Expert-level guidance without requiring anyone else to be present
More often than not, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to explain a problem you’re facing while simultaneously performing a task and positioning your laptop/phone to show your sample or instrument. It is also challenging to follow your teammates’ guidance over Slack as you perform a task. Rather than juggling multiple tasks, Assistants have the intricacies of your workflow built-in so when you get to a step, you have specific and customizable guidance that removes any confusion. The ability to customize Assistants also means you can include preventative measures to avoid errors that would otherwise occur.
Sample-specific instructions to ensure the right steps are being taken
Shifts limit the amount of time you can be on-site in a given week so you don’t have time to waste. Assistants can be connected to your LIMS so that your sample is linked to every step of the protocol or workflow. With guidance that is specific at the sample-level, you have confidence that you placed the sample in the right location, treated it with the right reagents, or analyzed it at the right time. All you need to do is follow the Assistant instructions.
Guidance that is ready when you are
Your time is valuable. With LabOps, you can initiate work while at home enabling you to coordinate the timing of manual steps with the arrival of on-site personnel. Once they arrive, they can immediately start with all of the instructions at their fingertips via a tablet or AR glasses. Since Assistant is compatible with any device, a user can take the instructions with them as they move around the lab so that they don’t waste time going back and forth between a computer and an instrument.
More time to run experiments in the lab instead of collating data
Every step you take with an Assistant is captured in LabOps so that the details of every manual step are stored with the sample information, equipment logs, and scientific data. This not only makes troubleshooting easier but also saves you time from collating data from equipment and other software. With a complete data capture accessible through LabOps on any device, you can spend your time in the lab setting up and running experiments, not worrying whether you gathered all of your data to analyze at home.
A way to support your team even when you aren’t there
With the power of the internet, coordination and process optimizations don’t have to be difficult. With LabOps, you can monitor your lab’s operations from home so that you know what samples are being tested, when samples will be run, and what delays may be occurring. Equipped with this information, you can prioritize the next shift’s focus and make adjustments to your Assistants so that the next shift has more guidance to enhance their productivity.
While COVID-19 has made running a lab complicated, it has also surfaced how labs can enhance their productivity. These new ways of being efficient with our time will not only help us make the most out of these uncertain times but will also result in even greater efficiency when we’re back in the lab. Get started today and make your lab’s “new normal” productive and efficient by saying [email protected].
